As a competitive chess player, Silas became IM in 2007, and made his first GM norm in 2008. These days, however, Silas does more chess teaching and writing. He has published 4 books for Quality Chess (from Rook vs. Two Minor Pieces in 2005, to his latest in 2019 on the King’s Indian Defense) and has a new book project in the pipeline.
His strength and passion is to explain complex issues in a manner that is easily understandable, and he does that through his writing as well as his teaching. For Silas personally, endgames and strategic planning is the exciting part of chess. His books usually deal with endgame and middle game concepts, and he finds it an exciting challenge to teach this to youngsters, as they usually struggle the most in this area due to a lack of experience.
Together with his wife Lu Mu, he founded SILU Games in 2018. Silas is behind the annual Chess Calendar with 365 daily puzzles that has been in production since 2020, but the company also makes chess accessories and educational games.
